In this episode, I'm going to try something new: Big Idea Fridays. I'd like to look at a topic in more depth and more theoretically. Today, I'm thinking about failure and the value of it. A lot of good can come out of failure if you fail well. We need to change the way we think about failure.

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I sent a survey to my students today, asking them to give me some insight into how they're feeling about things. I think it's important to ask students what they think and feel, but it's also important to ask ourselves the same questions. We need to know what our students need and want, but we also need to know what we have to offer.

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I've been thinking about physical health today. This new learning environment has challenged our minds but have we forgotten to take care of our bodies? I know I have.

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I read aloud to my students for a little while today and it was a nice experience. It's something that I do in class, and it was nice to be able to bring that over into the online learning space. If you can, you should read to your students – live – no matter what age they are.

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Today, I'm thinking about how to make engaging content for students. More than that, how do I have engaging conversations with students in this learning environment? In this episode, I'm asking for your help. Hit me up on Twitter, @mrgtutors, and share some of your go-to resources.

It's the first day of May, the end of the first month of teaching, and the sun is shining. In today's episode, I spend some time reflecting on what the last month was like and what I'd like to do going forward. I think it's important to take the time to reflect at significant points in time. Now feels like one of those times.

Today being Thursday, we had the Zoom meetup, so today's episode is based on some reflections of that discussion. Today's theme was, "What does student engagement look like now?" I think it's a good question and one that relies on a number of other questions. In today's episode, I share some of my thoughts on the subject.

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I read an article in The Globe and Mail yesterday that went over a few of the reasons why some parents are choosing to opt out of distance learning for their children. It got me thinking about the stress that this is placing on parents and I started asking questions about the necessity of what we're doing. 

The article: Some overwhelmed parents are giving up on distance learning and abandoning at-home schooling,

I had lunch with my students today and it was great. We talked about what we were eating, our pets, and our stuffed animals. Students who would normally turn off their cameras during video conferences turned them on. No matter how important this lunch was to me, it was even more important to the students. I suggest you consider using some of your instructional time to do something similar. If you do, let me know how it went.

I played Minecraft with a student for over an hour today. It got me thinking about how students really are in the best position to create their own learning opportunities, especially in this type of learning environment. They have knowledge about the things that they're interested in and love sharing it. It might be worth giving over some control to your students and having them design an engaging project for themselves.